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Merkle923 · 12-05-2013, 09:08 PM

I can't say for certain that Topps will resume posting and selling its baseball negatives on eBay, but I can tell you without fear of contradiction that if they don't, it won't be because they've run out.

As somebody who actually saw the Topps photo archive before it was broken up to be auctioned off, I can tell you that it was probably the largest baseball photo collection in the world. I believe it filled 16 or 18 large-sized, three-drawer filing cabinets, plus countless boxes and tubs. In the 1956-1981 era there tended to be multiple shoots of each player, every year. Each shoot included from three to ten different poses. Topps missed very, very few players in that span and they shot everybody they could find - coaches, instructors, trainers, announcers, minor leaguers, non-roster spring training invitees - if it was in uniform, they got it.

A fellow like Dave Campbell, the former infielder and broadcaster, had a total of 80 or so images. And he was on the low end. You can do the math on some of the players who lasted far longer, remembering that between late 1967 and early in spring training 1969, the MLBPA asked its players NOT to pose for Topps until the company was willing to do a deal with the union as a whole (that's why there are so many capless and blacked-out-cap cards in the '68 and '69 card series).

My estimate would be that the total in those filing cabinets was at least 1,000,000 images. I could be wildly wrong; it might have been twice that. Add in the football images (oddly I saw almost no basketball or hockey) and lord knows what the grand total really was.

Anyway, if they had sold 10 negatives a day via Topps Vault since 2004 (and I think that's a guess that's wildly high), they'd have only sold 32,850 by now. Meaning there could be 967,150 left. Meaning that at ten more a day they would still be selling them off through around the 22nd of December of the year 2278.

When I say they shot everybody, I mean it. There was a hanging folder labeled "MAUCH, GUS." It contained just one shoot of him -- at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1965. He was the Mets' trainer.

12-05-2013, 09:08 PM	#20324
Merkle923 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 2,210	The Topps Vault I can't say for certain that Topps will resume posting and selling its baseball negatives on eBay, but I can tell you without fear of contradiction that if they don't, it won't be because they've run out. As somebody who actually saw the Topps photo archive before it was broken up to be auctioned off, I can tell you that it was probably the largest baseball photo collection in the world. I believe it filled 16 or 18 large-sized, three-drawer filing cabinets, plus countless boxes and tubs. In the 1956-1981 era there tended to be multiple shoots of each player, every year. Each shoot included from three to ten different poses. Topps missed very, very few players in that span and they shot everybody they could find - coaches, instructors, trainers, announcers, minor leaguers, non-roster spring training invitees - if it was in uniform, they got it. A fellow like Dave Campbell, the former infielder and broadcaster, had a total of 80 or so images. And he was on the low end. You can do the math on some of the players who lasted far longer, remembering that between late 1967 and early in spring training 1969, the MLBPA asked its players NOT to pose for Topps until the company was willing to do a deal with the union as a whole (that's why there are so many capless and blacked-out-cap cards in the '68 and '69 card series). My estimate would be that the total in those filing cabinets was at least 1,000,000 images. I could be wildly wrong; it might have been twice that. Add in the football images (oddly I saw almost no basketball or hockey) and lord knows what the grand total really was. Anyway, if they had sold 10 negatives a day via Topps Vault since 2004 (and I think that's a guess that's wildly high), they'd have only sold 32,850 by now. Meaning there could be 967,150 left. Meaning that at ten more a day they would still be selling them off through around the 22nd of December of the year 2278. When I say they shot everybody, I mean it. There was a hanging folder labeled "MAUCH, GUS." It contained just one shoot of him -- at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1965. He was the Mets' trainer. Last edited by Merkle923; 07-27-2017 at 08:35 PM.